


moments in time i'll find the words to say before you leave me today

by rems



Series: fairmount [3]
Category: Everyman HYBRID
Genre: Drowning, Fairmount Kids - Freeform, Mild Gore, The Mining Town Four - Freeform, i guess, i guess?? hes there a little, idk just a general Warning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-19
Updated: 2018-04-19
Packaged: 2019-04-24 22:08:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14364708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rems/pseuds/rems
Summary: He just wants to sleep.





	moments in time i'll find the words to say before you leave me today

**Author's Note:**

> title from moments by 1d

Corenthal is suddenly ripped from sleep as a small body lands on his, movement from the bottom of his bed signalling that more of his children are in the room. He groans loudly and opens his eyes, seeing.. Vinnie? He reaches for his glasses and slips them on. Yes, its Vinnie, smiling brightly at him from the side of his bed. He rolls onto his back, the child on top of him, Evan, shifting with him so that he's sitting on his stomach, practically vibrating with excitement. Corenthal looks towards the foot of his bed where Steph is standing on the bed next to Jeffery, who sits criss-cross on the comforter.

"Get _up_ , come _on_ , it's Christmas!" Steph says, bouncing a little on the bed. Evan drums on his chest excitedly and Vinnie tugs on Corenthal's hand, trying to motivate him to get moving.

"Alright, alright, I'm going," Corenthal laughs, lifting Evan off of him as he sits up and throwing his covers off his legs. He stands and walks out of the room, the four children following him close behind. He goes to make himself coffee and Vinnie groans behind him and he hears a thunk. He glances behind him to see Vinnie laying on the ground dramatically, laying one arm across his eyes in faked distress. Corenthal chuckles and goes back to making his coffee.

He leans his back against the counter and closes his eyes with a smile, listening to the ambient sounds of his family; Steph, chattering to a still-silent Jeffery; Evan, rummaging in the pantry for food; Vinnie tapping his feet against the floor rhythmically and he feels happy, here, surrounded by his children. He opens his eyes and starts violently.

Vincent stands before him, large round glasses splattered with the same back gunk that rolls down his cheeks like tears and bubbles from his lips. Corenthal glances around him and finds that he's alone with Vinnie in some dim gray room. He looks back to his child and moves towards him. The boy smiles wide, eyes crinkling happily and steps echo from behind Vinnie. A man steps out from the shadows and Corenthal's eyes fall to the necklace he wears around his neck. A cross. The man slides a hand around Vinnie's shoulders, gripping him tightly to his side with a sly smile, keeping eye contact with Corenthal the entire time.

"Hello, Reverend," Vinnie says happily, his voice garbled slightly by the stuff spilling out of his mouth, still smiling, and Corenthal wants to vomit.

"Hello, Vincent," Reverend Green, apparently, replies without looking away from him, his voice smooth and deep.

He finally finds his voice and spits out, "Get away from him." He's seeing red, trembling with anger. This is the man who hurt his child, _his child_. Green just smiles at him like he knows exactly what he's thinking, and he looks _smug_. “Don’t touch him.”

"Well, Vincent, would you like to play a game?" He ignores Corenthal, finally breaking eye contact to look down at Vinnie, who nods happily. Corenthal angrily rushes forward to grab Vinnie's arm but passes right through it, Vinnie's arm distorting like smoke. He looks at his hand and when he looks back up the scene has changed again.

 

Stephanie is in front of him, hands clasped before her, smiling gently at him through the tar that flows down her face. He moves closer to her and she's recoils as if shoved. She yells out a quick “doctor!” before she’s falling backwards and through the floor as if through water, splashing through and going completely under. Corenthal runs to where she is, going to shove a hand into the water to pull her up, but his hand connects _hard_ with the floor, making him unable to reach his child.

She looks up at him, eyes wide and terrified as she's kept under the water. He pounds his fists on the floor desperately, trying to get to her. Steph's eyebrows furrow and then she sucks in a breath and begins to drown. Corenthal frantically bangs on the floor, shouting, knowing it’s hopeless and then she stops moving, floating down into the shadows below.

 

Corenthal looks around and spots Jeffery, sitting criss-cross facing him with a little toy truck held in his spindly fingers. He looks up at him and swipes a hand through the black tears on his face.

"Hello, Doctor," he gurgles out.

"Hello, Jeffery," he says, moving closer to the boy and actually managing to get close to him, sitting on the floor in front of him. "Are you alright?"

"Mhm!" Jeff hums happily, apparently not hearing the approaching footsteps. Corenthal looks up and tries to make out the shape. It's a man with curly hair, holding a shotgun. Jeff's father, he assumes. Corenthal is unable to move as the man leans down and kisses Jeffery on his head, running a hand gently through the boys hair before standing again and setting the barrel of the gun against the back of Jeffery’s head. Jeff has a small smile on his face and he looks back to Corenthal, and then a loud bang sounds, blood and brain matter splattering onto him as a shotgun shell rips his child’s face apart directly in front of him.

Corenthal jerks in surprise and is still in shock for a moment and staring at the hole in his son’s head, lifting his hand to his face slowly to the gore on his cheek. He then turns and gags, only just managing to avoid throwing up, finally looking away from the destroyed shape of Jeffery’s skull. Corenthal looks back up at the man and he smiles down at him before putting the tip of the gun into his own mouth and pulling the trigger, all while keeping eye contact with the doctor. Corenthal stands on shaky legs and turns away from the scene.

He turns and immediately finds a knife plunged into his stomach. He looks down at the blade, and then up at the boy wielding it. It’s Evan, or, more accurately, HABIT. Corenthal can see the purple sheen over Evan’s naturally blue eyes as he looks up at him and grins wide. He, surprisingly, has no black tar coming from him, only blood splattered across his face from where he’s just smeared it by pushing his fringe from his face. It pulls the knife back out as Corenthal’s knees buckle and he finds himself on his back, HABIT crawling on top of him to more easily attack him. Corenthal struggles against it as much as he dares, not wanting to harm Evan’s body, and he’s easily pinned by it’s knee on one of his arms and it’s foot against the wrist of the other. He wants to look away, not wanting to see his child’s body doing this, but he’s unable to as HABIT drives the knife into his chest over and over again.

Corenthal doesn’t make a sound as it does, knowing that that’s what it wants in the end. To make him hurt. Scream. Whatever. It’s not long before he’s definitely dying, bleeding out onto a foreign kitchen floor and his child’s clothes. It’s only then that it finally stops, sitting up, breathing heavily and giggling dazedly. It smiles down at him before it’s eyes roll back into its head and it falls off of him to the side. It stays still in a lump on the ground for a few seconds before moving slowly, as if sore. It looks up and over to him, and Corenthal can see that it’s Evan again, the black tar already leaking from his eyes and the corners of his mouth. He looks down to Corenthal’s chest, shirt soaked in blood, then to the smeared trail of blood that leads to his own shoes, then at his own hands, covered in blood. He makes a small terrified squeak in the back of his throat, holding his hands as far away from himself as he can, looking at Corenthal again.

“I- I- I- I didn’t-,” he stutters desperately and Corenthal nods.

“I know, Evan, I know, it’s alright,” he says, then coughs roughly into his fist, blood sputtering out. “It’s alright,” he says again.

“I- I didn’t want to, I didn’t mean to I-” Evan continues, eyes flicking back to his own hands. “I’m sorry,” he says quietly, voice cracking.

His vision is going dark, closing in around him and he squints, trying to bring Evan’s face back into focus. “It’s alright,” he says once again. “I know you didn’t want to.” He weakly pats Evan’s sneaker with a hand, attempting some level of comfort. Evan jerks it away from him, scooting farther away from him. He goes to reach for him but the dark closes in on him fully and he

 

Corenthal jerks awake, sitting up in bed, sweating bullets. Looks at the clock: 3:48 am. Sighs and flops back onto the bed. His heart is pounding, which is giving him a headache, and his chest hurts from phantom pains left over from the dream, so he stands and walks into the kitchen. Grabs a glass of water, walks to a barstool, sits and rests his head on his folded arms. He sniffs loud, trying to hold in tears, but he fails as he sobs into the crook of one of his elbows. He just wants to sleep. He wants to dream of his children, even, but in _life_ , when they were happy. A family. But he’s only allowed the nightmares, and he almost doesn’t want them to stop. He doesn’t want to forget them, so if he must endure pain and loss all over again to see them then he’ll do it. But-

What was Jeffery’s favorite color? What song would Stephanie sing in the bath? Which movie was Vinnie’s favorite? Where did Evan hide the vegetables that he never ate?

He’d forgotten.

**Author's Note:**

> ive been on a big Corenthal Depression kick and this is what happens


End file.
